In St. Petersburg, security forces detained seven far-right activists

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In St. Petersburg, a criminal case was opened against a group of seven young far-right activists. The city investigator reports that the case was opened under the article on the organization of an extremist community and is connected with three cases of beating of citizens: approximately in 2025.

Now the Investigative Committee is conducting interrogations of the detainees. They are between 17 and 28 years old.

Fontanka, citing its data, writes that in the first case of the attack, the ultra-right forced the victim to his knees, forced him to renounce his “leftist” views, beat him, and held a wooden dildo across his lips. In the second case, the young man was also forced to his knees and forced to renounce left-wing “ideology.” The third beating took place near the Galereya shopping center during a scuffle.

The publication clarifies that the detainees call themselves the “Russian National Army.” The telegram channel Baza, associated with the security forces, also writes that the detainees call themselves the “Russian National Army” and attacked informally dressed people in St. Petersburg. The Baza publication also attached a video of one of these attacks.

Ultra-right in St. Petersburg

In 2025, Bamaga published a large-scale study about neo-Nazis and the far right in St. Petersburg. Journalists found that the level of violence has returned to the level of the 2000s, but the movement has become younger. The number of neo-Nazi crimes is growing again: according to the SOVA Center, the number of victims of ideologically motivated violence increased from 29 people in 2022 to 259 in 2024, which is comparable to the figures in 2011. At the same time, the average age of participants in St. Petersburg is about 16 years, and children start the movement from the age of 12–13.

At the same time, young people romanticize the neo-Nazis of the past, learning about them from TikTok. Maxim “Tesak” Martsinkevich and Nazi skinheads Dmitry Borovikov and Alexey Voevodin, convicted of murder, remain cult figures. TikTok introduces teenagers to the subculture through music, clothing and behavior, after which they look for like-minded people on Telegram and among friends.

In addition, the target of promotions is now videos. Young ultra-rightists beat up migrants, homeless people, informals, and also lure men called “pedophiles” into fake dates. The point is to record the humiliation or beating on camera and publish the video.